heinrich reinhardt

Reinhardt was born on April 13, 1865 in Pressburg (now Bratislava). The son of a jeweler, he went to Vienna to study at the conservatory of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde where he was one of Anton Bruckner's pupils. He became an accomplished pianist and organist, and his familiarity with several other instruments later served him well as orchestrator of his own works and those of others. Between 1890 and 1900 he published numerous songs, piano and salon pieces, as well as an opera, Die Minnekönigin (1895).

He also wrote music reports for, but abandoned this after the tremendous success of his first operetta, Das süsse Mädel (Carltheater, 25 October 1901). It opened a new phase for Viennese operetta, being more overtly in the song and dance musical comedy style. His work Die Sprudelfee was brought to Broadway in 1910 as The Spring Maid and was a resounding success.  The work remained part of the repertoire of stock and amateur companies through the 1940s. He died on January 31, 1922 in Vienna.